DIY powder coating gun

Master modder ZapWizard has completed work on version 3 of his home built powder coating gun. Powder coat is applied using air pressure to blow negatively charged thermoplastic particles onto a grounded metal surface. The metal part is then baked to make a hard finish. ZapWizard’s gun uses an air pistol with regulator at the bottom operating at 15 PSI. The powder is held in an acrylic kitchen canister with a reinforced seal. The final element is an ionizer element placed in front of the discharge nozzle. Version 2 had a trigger operated switch for the ionizer, but that was replaced with just a simple toggle.

please, a how-to, or some parts list, or something besides a few pictures? I’d love a real building blog or something-this is just a cruel tease at best, or worse, does this thing work at all and we’re all just suckers for buying into it?

Now we need to find a way to bake the stuff on without ruining an oven and rendering the house uninhabitable. For those of us in apartments, a second powder coating oven is out of the question.

I don’t see any reason you can’t use your oven, as long as the part is sealed inside something to prevent powder from shaking loose and contain fumes. An oven bag should do the trick, it will stand up to the heat and still allow you to see the part. Make sure you keep the bag from touching the part. A metal cage from the petstore would work for this, it would support the bag, and give you something to hang the powder-coated part from. After baking, take it outside to open it up and air it out. In case there’s some volatile component that can pass through the bag, ventilate your kitchen while baking, and crank the oven up to maximum temperature for a while afterwards. After that, if there’s anything left over, it should be stable and non-volatile enough at normal baking temperatures that it won’t taint your food.

@4, thx, @1 link was posted in previous versions..updated.
@5, there is a superbright 10mm RED led on it to tell you the ionizer is on.
@6, While that would work, it’s a bit more dangerous. The above ionizer is cheap, and is pretty safe.
@7, because it’s the 3rd version, and I was put together in 1 day.
@9, All of the brass parts are visible there, they are all parts from the plumbing area of Home Depot or Lowes. The pistol handle isn’t availabel at Home Depot, but the same thing can be done with the part I used in Ver2
You can get the kitchen container at Bed Bath and Beyond for $5.
It does work, there are photos of powdercoated stuff in my flickr account, there is a link to a video in the first photo.
A toaster oven is big enough for many parts. I use it 90% of the time.
@10 – When the powder is curing it releases gases. It’s just not recommended to use the same oven you cook with.
@16 Yes the harbor freight unit is supposed to be pretty good, and I actually powder from their store. I did this project as one of the Austin Modder members bought a Sears model (breaks real quick) that got us hooked on doing powdercoat. At the time I built Ver1 I didn’t have a compressor, I was trying to duplicate the Sears model using a high speed fan.

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